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Man dead after falling through ice

Tuesday, January 15, 2013
6:23:28 EST PM

Southern Georgian Bay OPP Const. David Hobson stands on waterfront land along Peek-A-Boo Trail and points to the open water in Penetanguishene Harbour, where the body of a 19-year-old Tiny Township man was recovered Tuesday morning.
GISELE WINTON SARVIS - QMI AGENCY

PENETANGUISHENE — Neighbours along Peek-A-Boo Trail in Tiny Township were going about their daily routine Tuesday afternoon, oblivious to a tragedy that occurred beyond their properties in the early morning.

A 19-year-old man was pulled from Penetanguishene Harbour Tuesday morning by Tiny Fire Service volunteers. He had no vital signs when he was pulled from the water.

The man’s name has not yet been released by police, but he has been identified on Facebook as Dale Bradshaw from Tiny Township.

“He was a local man who was supposed to meet friends in Penetanguishene between 2 and 3 a.m. and failed to show,” said Southern Georgian Bay OPP Const. David Hobson.

“If you were trying to cross the ice here, it’s a quick hike across,” he said, referring to the tip of land at the bay’s mouth by Peek-A-Boo Trail across to Penetanguishene. “But there’s a five-metre hole in the ice here. He was found in the hole.”

Police were notified of the missing man at about 7 a.m. and they had already dispatched an OPP helicopter and the OPP Central Region Emergency Response Team for another 41-year-old man who’d been reported missing Monday night. That man was found alive Tuesday morning in the area.

“The chopper flew over this area and observed some items on the ice,” he said.

Those items were the deceased man’s possessions.

Firefighters used an inflatable, narrow Fortuna boat, called a “rapid deployment craft,” to make the recovery.

“It’s especially designed for work in the water and it’s a stable platform for our guys to do what they need to do,” said Denis Maurice, deputy fire chief of Tiny Fire Service, who was on the scene shortly after 9 a.m. with about a dozen volunteer firefighters.

The young man was quickly located in the hole in about eight feet of water.

“No one likes this sort of thing. He was a member of the community. It affects everyone in different ways. We don’t like it to happen to anybody, regardless,” said Maurice.